New Horizons for the Priesthood

New Horizons for the Priesthood

New Horizons for the Priesthood

Excerpt

Since he's the one who discovered it, Erik Erikson probably has some right to say what the proper use of the term "identity crisis" ought to be. In his recent book, Identity and the Life Cycle, Erikson expresses surprise that the phrase he almost took for granted had become a staple of popular psychology. One has the impression that he is generally pleased with the popularity of his brain child, but that there are also some reservations:

I must register a certain impatience with the equation never suggested by me of the term "identity" with the question, "Who am I?" This question nobody would ask himself, except in a more or less transient, morbid state . . . wherefore, on occasion, I find myself asking a student who claims that he is in an "identity crisis" whether he's complaining or boasting. The pertinent question, if it can be put in the first person at all, would be, "What do I want to make of myself?" and "What do I have to work with? . . ."